Beam: State budget fix won’t be easy

Louisiana citizens learned this week
that 30 Republican state legislators want to reform the way the state
writes and approves
its annual budgets. Most who heard the news were probably asking
themselves pretty much the same question: Why should I care?

The answer is simple. The way Louisiana
spends its $26 billion budget touches millions of lives in more ways
than we can imagine.
Ask education leaders, health care officials, social service
organizations and the residents they serve who have been hit
hard by mid-year budget cuts for the last five years. And the sad
fact is none of it had to happen.

One budget reduction really hit home
when it was announced the state was making deep cuts to hospice care
that is so vital
to those facing end-of-life issues. That decision was reversed
when it became obvious the people of this state found the idea
heartless and unacceptable.

Others weren’t so lucky. Funding was reduced for domestic violence shelters. A program was eliminated that provides contract
services for the poor, mentally ill and drug-addicted. Colleges and universities that have experienced annual budget cuts
faced additional money shortages.

The major reason for mid-year budget cuts is simple. The governor and the Legislature did what they do so often. They budgeted
money on things expected to happen that didn’t materialize. They used one-time money that isn’t available year in and year
out. And they put the budget together at the very last minute, which has become an annual tradition. Lawmakers who didn’t
like it had no other choice because they knew the absence of a spending plan would be harmful to too many people.

Those are the issues the 30 Republicans want to address at the legislative session beginning April 8. State Rep. Brett Geymann
of Moss Bluff is one of the leaders of the Budget Reform Coalition that released a legislative package Tuesday. They hope
it will receive a warm reception from Gov. Bobby Jindal and other members of the Legislature.

“We believe these bills will change the ways we do things for the best,” Geymann said.

The coalition wants the budget-writing process to be wrapped up a couple of weeks before the session concludes, end the use
of one-time money and quit basing some spending on things that may not happen.

Perhaps the group’s most ambitious goal
is to open up more areas of the budget to reductions so that health
care and higher
education, which aren’t protected, don’t have to bear an unfair
burden. You get a sense of how bad things are when you consider
the overall picture.

The $26 billion budget contains federal
and state money and other funds. Only $8.2 billion of that is in the
state general
fund, and legislators can only make reductions to $2.4 billion of
that money. The rest is dedicated by either state law or
the constitution, and it can’t be touched. The budget coalition
wants to fix that so that other agencies will share the load.

Families that try to live within budgets know you shouldn’t spend more money than you have coming in. And when times are tough,
everyone has to make sacrifices. Why shouldn’t the state live by the same rules?

The budget changes sought by Geymann and his colleagues will have easy sailing if Jindal and members of the state Senate want
them to succeed. However, that is where they may run into serious problems because that is where good intentions have been
sabotaged in the past. Last year is a good example.

Conservatives in the House cut $267
million in one-time money from the budget, and sent it to the Senate.
That money and additional
dollars were restored in the Senate that has always gone along
with Jindal’s wishes.

The governor said in a prepared
statement his office has had good discussions with the Budget Reform
Coalition, but that is
a long way from a ringing endorsement. If past performance is a
good indicator, the odds are Jindal and the Senate won’t go
along with any drastic budget changes that might weaken their
power.

It’s no secret that Louisiana governors
wield tremendous influence over the state Legislature. Jindal has never
hesitated
to use that power to punish those who don’t play by his rules.
Cross the governor and you lose your perks, your projects for
the folks back home and your legislative effectiveness. Few
legislators are willing to pay that price in order to be more
independent. However, two of them did last June.

Geymann and Rep. Jim Morris, R-Oil
City, gave up committee assignments and perks like an apartment they
shared at the Pentagon
Barracks. They also realized they might have a difficult time
securing projects for their home districts. Geymann explained
why he did it.

“I need to separate myself from any perks just to be clear I’ve got one thing in my focus and that’s working on the budget,”
Geymann said at the time.

Morris said, “I don’t want anything to be held over me that might affect a vote for my district.”

The Legislature will never be the
independent branch of government it is supposed to be until a majority
in both houses is
willing to make the same sacrifices. The budget reformers are on
the right track here, but political ambition being what it
is, don’t expect any miracles.

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Jim Beam, the retired editor of the American Press, has covered people and politics for more than five decades. Contact him at 494-4025 or jbeam@americanpress.com